Derna Struggles to Cope with Thousands of Corpses

Rescuers recover the body of a victim killed during flooding in Derna, Libya, Friday, Sept. 15, 2023. Search teams are combing streets, wrecked buildings, and even the sea to look for bodies in Derna, where the collapse of two dams unleashed a massive flash flood that killed thousands of people. (AP Photo/Ricardo Garcia Vilanova)
Rescuers recover the body of a victim killed during flooding in Derna, Libya, Friday, Sept. 15, 2023. Search teams are combing streets, wrecked buildings, and even the sea to look for bodies in Derna, where the collapse of two dams unleashed a massive flash flood that killed thousands of people. (AP Photo/Ricardo Garcia Vilanova)
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Derna Struggles to Cope with Thousands of Corpses

Rescuers recover the body of a victim killed during flooding in Derna, Libya, Friday, Sept. 15, 2023. Search teams are combing streets, wrecked buildings, and even the sea to look for bodies in Derna, where the collapse of two dams unleashed a massive flash flood that killed thousands of people. (AP Photo/Ricardo Garcia Vilanova)
Rescuers recover the body of a victim killed during flooding in Derna, Libya, Friday, Sept. 15, 2023. Search teams are combing streets, wrecked buildings, and even the sea to look for bodies in Derna, where the collapse of two dams unleashed a massive flash flood that killed thousands of people. (AP Photo/Ricardo Garcia Vilanova)

Residents and rescue workers in the devastated Libyan city of Derna are struggling to cope with the thousands of corpses washing up or decaying under rubble, after a flood that smashed down buildings and swept people to sea.

The World Health Organization and other aid groups urged authorities in Libya to stop burying flood victims in mass graves, saying these could bring long-term mental distress to families or cause health risks if located near water.

A UN report said more than 1,000 people had so far been buried in that manner since Libya was hit on Sunday by torrential rain that caused two dams to burst.

Thousands were killed and thousands more are missing.

"Bodies are littering the streets, washing back on shore, and are buried under collapsed buildings and debris. In just two hours, one of my colleagues counted over 200 bodies on the beach near Derna," Bilal Sablouh, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) forensics manager for Africa, told a briefing in Geneva.

Ibrahim al-Arabi, health minister in Libya's Tripoli-based western government, told Reuters he was certain groundwater was polluted with water mixed up with corpses, dead animals, refuse and chemical substances. "We urge people not to approach the wells in Derna," he said.

Mohammad al-Qabisi, head of Derna's Wahda Hospital, said a field hospital was treating people with chronic illnesses needing regular attention. He said there were fears waterborne diseases would spread, but no cholera had been recorded so far.

Swathes of Derna, centrepoint of the destruction in Libya's east, were obliterated when the dams above the city broke, and the flood that swept down a usually dry riverbed brought down whole residential blocks while families were asleep.

The International Organization for Migration mission in Libya said more than 5,000 people were presumed dead, with 3,922 deaths registered in hospitals, and over 38,640 were displaced in the flood-stricken region.

The true death toll could be far higher, officials say.

"We should be afraid of an epidemic," 60-year-old Nouri Mohamed said, at a bakery offering loaves for free. "There are still bodies underground ... Now there are corpses starting to smell."

The UN health agency together with the ICRC and International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies called for burials to be managed better.

"We urge authorities in communities touched by tragedy to not rush forward with mass burials or mass cremations," Kazunobu Kojima, medical officer for biosafety and biosecurity in the WHO's Health Emergencies Program, said in the statement.

It called for individual graves, demarcated and documented, saying that hasty interments could lead to mental anguish for families as well as social and legal problems.

The bodies of victims of trauma from natural disasters "almost never" posed a health threat, it said, unless they were in or near fresh water supplies since corpses may leak excrement.

A doctor in Derna said this week that photos were being taken of unidentified bodies before burial, in case relatives could identify them later on.

Thursday's UN report said more than 1,000 bodies in Derna and over 100 in Al Bayda, another coastal city hit by flooding, had been buried in mass graves.

The Norwegian Refugee Council, which has a team of 100 in Libya, said dead body management was the most pressing concern.

"I've heard from my team that there are mass graves where rescue workers were appealing: 'Don't bring us food, don’t bring us water, bring us body bags'," the NRC's Ahmed Bayram said.

The ICRC sent a cargo flight to Benghazi, eastern Libya's largest city, on Friday with 5,000 body bags. Other aid has also been coming in from abroad.

The Danish Refugee Council said it was sending a team of explosives disposal experts because of the risk of landmines being dislodged by flooding.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said his country, which has already sent three aircraft and a ship with supplies, had now sent two amphibious landing ships carrying 122 vehicles including ambulances and rescue vehicles.

Some residents were frustrated that Libya's own fractured authorities were not acting faster.

"The state is no of use to us," said Saad Rajab Mohamed al-Hasi, a 50-year-old security officer who lives in Susah, a town about 60 km (38 miles) away that was also damaged by flooding. "Now I’m in the street with my children and wife."

UN aid chief Martin Griffiths told the Geneva briefing that Libya needed equipment to find people trapped in sludge and damaged buildings, as well as primary health care to prevent a cholera outbreak.



US General Sees Progress as Israel-Hezbollah Ceasefire Deadline Approaches in Lebanon

 A general view shows damage and debris in the southern Lebanese village of al-Taybeh, near the border with Israel, on February 4, 2025. (AFP)
A general view shows damage and debris in the southern Lebanese village of al-Taybeh, near the border with Israel, on February 4, 2025. (AFP)
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US General Sees Progress as Israel-Hezbollah Ceasefire Deadline Approaches in Lebanon

 A general view shows damage and debris in the southern Lebanese village of al-Taybeh, near the border with Israel, on February 4, 2025. (AFP)
A general view shows damage and debris in the southern Lebanese village of al-Taybeh, near the border with Israel, on February 4, 2025. (AFP)

The US representative on a committee overseeing the ceasefire agreement that ended the latest Israel-Hezbollah war said Friday that “significant progress” had been made ahead of a looming deadline to implement all the terms of the deal.

However, Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers' statement appeared to leave some ambiguity on whether Israel would withdraw its forces from all of southern Lebanon by the ceasefire's Feb. 18 deadline, saying only that he was confident “all population centers in the Southern Litani Area” would be back under Lebanese control by then.

In areas where Israeli forces pull out, the Lebanese army and a UN peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL are tasked with ensuring Hezbollah does not reestablish a military presence.

The deadline for Israel and Hezbollah to withdraw was initially set for late January, but Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend it. Lebanese officials say they won't agree to another extension and adamantly reject an Israeli proposal to keep its forces in five border points after leaving other areas.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Thursday that his country had proposed a beefed-up UNIFIL presence, including French forces, in place of Israeli troops at those five points. The monitoring committee also includes France, Lebanon, Israel and UNIFIL.